DEATH VALLEY: It Won`t Cost YOU an Arm and a Leg!
An odd and rather dramatic headline perhaps? Captain Tony White, a Gatwick-based Monarch Airlines Airbus A300-600 pilot explains:
Who can forget those iconic photographs of the late Princess Diana wearing a flack jacket whilst being briefed on the horrors of landmines/minefields and unexploded ordnance? I recall her support of MAG and vowed that one day I would do my bit to help rid the world of these hideous devices.
Every day, every hour, an innocent child, adult, or even a cow is blown to smithereens or severely mutilated by unseen, recently laid or even long-forgotten relics of warfare. The CBU87 cluster bomb, recently used in Lebanon, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, sews the ground with hundreds of brightly coloured, non-threatening looking devices. Children attempt to play with them. The results do not need explaining.
The devastating effects on body, mind and soul of living somewhere possibly covered in ordnance prevent some of the world’s most disadvantaged people from engaging in a normal life. Such routine tasks as tending sheep, collecting water or tilling crops pose deadly risks.
I'm not brave enough to go and disarm mines myself, but I'm hoping to raise significant funds for MAG in order that they can continue to train and support those who are. To that end, I'm asking for YOUR support in donating as much as you feel able, to sponsor me in MAG's DEATH VALLEY CYCLE CHALLENGE in early November.
An Airbus A300 will climb 5500ft in one minute and cover 268 miles horizontally in 40 minutes. That is the mileage and vertical distance that myself and others will cover on our mountain bikes in a 5 day cycle through and up Death Valley in California; just a bit slower and with more effort than my normal transport! The fitness training and work-up to this challenge has focused my attention on MAG's work in locating and destroying landmines in countries affected by conflict across the world. THE REAL DEATH VALLEYS. Delve into this website and judge for yourself.
Please don't just “switch off” from what appears to be yet another charity appeal. You can make a real difference; it costs MAG £1.50 per square meter to make land safe. Pick a place where you feel the safest. Your bed? The kitchen? The garden? Sponsor me by donating the square area of these places to MAG and they can make someone else’s environment safe. Click here and even better gift aid it. Do it now. Please.
It won't cost YOU an arm and a leg.
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